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Once children have worked through the SoundWorks programme, they usually find it fairly easy to work with other published materials. This is because they now have a thorough grounding in letter-sound relationships and a good grasp of how our writing system works. They have also mastered two of the vowel digraphs and three suffixes, enough to prepare them for many of the complexities in English spelling that lie ahead. There will be a small number of children, however, who do not take easily to the material you prepare for them. Perhaps they find coping with this complexity just too difficult to manage at the moment. If you feel that a child still needs the carefully-structured painstaking approach that SoundWorks offers, then some suitable material is offered here.
How the material is arranged So far, the Units have been taught in a clearly-defined order, initial sounds were taught before final sounds, for instance, and CVC words before CCVC. This sequence is necessary because it follows the way in which children develop phonological awareness naturally . The closer we keep to this natural progression, the easier it is for children to learn. This developmental process is now largely complete, and so it is no longer necessary to take such care with the order in which things are taught. The approach in this new material will be much more flexible. The material is presented in several broad sections, with each section gradually increasing in difficulty. The main sections are Short Vowels, Long Vowels, Digraphs, Syllables, Suffixes, and a range of One-Off Lessons. In planning your child’s work, you can choose any Unit you feel is appropriate, drawing from the various sections as you wish. Thus, a lesson on syllables could be followed by one on digraphs, and then perhaps something on suffixes. Alternatively, you might choose to do a whole series of lessons on syllables alone. It is up to you. Your understanding of the way in which children learn will guide you here. Where it is important to teach a particular Unit before another, this will be explained at the time. You will also be alerted to confusing ideas that need to be kept apart. And as always with SoundWorks, the reasons that underlie each teaching task will be explained in detail, together with guidance on when children are ready to move on. The teaching theory A new feature will be attempted here. Because the website allows the use of links, the teaching theory will be explained in a several ways. The Unit itself will contain the theory that is necessary for effective teaching. This will be quite sufficient and there is no need to go beyond this. However, if you find a particular idea interesting, you will be able to link through to a more detailed explanation of the concept, while a further link will take you to the relevant research that underlies the theory. It is hoped that this new approach will enable people to follow their particular interests and develop their teaching knowledge in whatever way they wish. Getting started The material is currently in the early stages of preparation and will be posted on this site, section by section, as it is completed. When new material becomes available, you will be alerted in the section ‘What's New?’ on the main Menu page. If you would like to try things out and send us feedback, your help would be much appreciated!
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